1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printer and a liquid supply apparatus including the liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
Generally, a liquid ejecting apparatus for ejecting an ink (liquid) from nozzles of a recording head (liquid ejecting head) toward a target and, for example, an ink jet printer (hereinafter, referred to as a “printer”) is widely used. In such a printer, if air bubbles are generated in the ink ejected from the recording head, a printing failure such as dot missing may be caused. Accordingly, a printer capable of degassing (eliminating) gas dissolved in the ink such that the printing failure can be suppressed is suggested (for example, see JP-A-2006-75683).
The printer of JP-A-2006-75683 includes a vacuum chamber (liquid supply apparatus) as a degassing filter for eliminating gas (air bubbles) dissolved in the ink. In the vacuum chamber, a depressurization space (depressurization chamber) and a common liquid space (defoaming chamber) are partitioned by a gas permeable film (partition wall). When the depressurization space is depressurized by a vacuum pump, a pressure difference between the depressurization space and the common liquid space is generated and the gas dissolved in the ink contained in the common liquid space is eliminated to the depressurization space via the gas permeable film by the pressure difference.
In the printer of JP-A-2006-75683, since the depressurization space and the common liquid space are partitioned by the thin gas permeable film, the strength of the gas permeable film is insufficient. If a reinforcement member is provided in the common liquid space such that the rigidity of the gas permeable film is compensated for, the channel resistance of the common liquid space is increased. If the vacuum chamber in which the channel resistance of the common liquid space is increased is positioned immediately before an ink jet head (liquid ejecting head), it is difficult to control the discharge of the ink from the ink jet head.
If the printer of JP-A-2006-75683 is a color printer using a plurality of colors of inks, vacuum chambers need to be separately provided with respect to the plurality of colors of inks and thus the size of the apparatus may be increased. In this case, although one vacuum chamber is used, depressurization spaces and common liquid spaces should be provided in the vacuum chamber with respect to the inks. Thus, the problem that the size of the apparatus is increased is not solved.